We at Twitchy hadn’t paid much attention to the White House’s “We the People” site until spokesman Jay Carney drew attention to the petition to release the president’s secret beer recipe. Since then, the site has taken off, with petitions ranging from demands to secede from the Union to calls for nationalization of the Twinkie industry and a return of Toledo, Ohio, to Michigan.

Now we’ve all heard that conservatives are the humorless ones, and that we don’t understand the finer points of the language, such as metaphor. But while gun rights advocates have reacted to the petition with the snarky #PiersMorganDeportationGifts hashtag, author Joyce Carol Oates has likened the petition to — wait for it — a lynching.

No lynch mob has ever thought it was evil, or even tragically misguided.All believe they are acting morally–to uphold Order & Goodness.

What’s not real? The chance of anything whatsoever happening to Piers Morgan, professionally speaking. Maybe the White House staff will get a chuckle over the petition. We certainly did. But lynching? Really? If that’s a proper metaphor for this situation, the word certainly doesn’t mean what we thought it did.

At least one follower found a way to turn Oates’ ridiculous comparison into an argument for gun rights.

@joycecaroloates Difference between a lynch mob and a bunch of cowards running away? An armed person who was meant as the victim.